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Welcome! Artfully Musing is a blog dedicated to sharing art and the techniques and products used. I'll be showcasing collage, altered and mixed media art as well as miniature. I hope you'll check back often and are inspired. Thanks for visiting! Laura

Monday, October 31, 2016

My treat for you on this spookalicious day is the Halloween Spooky Background collage sheet pictured above. The backgrounds are ATC sized but would also work for cards and other collage projects. Feel free to download it and use it in your artwork.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

I thought I would take a short break
from Halloween projects with this moon themed 3D grandfather clock. To me, clocks lend themselves to all kinds of creative possibilities and themes, which caused me much angst in trying to decide which way to go before I settled on the moon theme. No doubt you'll see me do something else with this clock in the future.The clock is made from a chipboard kit
making assembly easy. In addition to the large clock kit I used in this project, Alpha Stamps is also carrying a smaller version that is 1:12 scale in size.

To complement the clock kit, I’ve created
a new Large Grandfather Clock Facades collage sheet. The moon themed images I used from the sheet
are just one of four different themes to choose from which also include, Alice
in Wonderland, Steampunk, and Halloween.

This sheet contains four different themed facades, sized to fit the large 3D grandfather clock. The themes are Alice in Wonderland, The Moon,
Halloween and Steampunk. There are clock
face images, front panel images and decorative borders for each of the themes.

This sheet includes 9 men, women and a
cat dressed in Harlequin, Columbine, and Pierrot costumes.

THE CONSTRUCTION

CLOCK CABINET ASSEMBLY

I started by assembling the clock cabinet. Below are pictures to help you
see how the pieces fit together.

Before assembling the cabinet, I marked
and punched holes for the clock weights and pendulum.

Next, I assembled the cabinet and painted it and the clock front black.

I then papered the inside of the clock
cabinet and re-punched the holes.

CABINET MIDSECTION

For the inner workings of the middle
section of the cabinet, I started by gluing chimes slightly popped up from the back
of the cabinet. The chimes are made from Mini
Silver Wind Chimes that are glued together and painted gold.

The weights are Mini Glass Tube Pendantsfilled with
micro beads. You can pull off the bottom of
the tube pendants to access the glass tube inside.
I hung the pendant weights on chains and then used a jump ring on the other side of
the chipboard divider to keep the chain in place. To make sure that the opening in the pendant weight faced
forward (so you could see the beads inside) I added glue to the jump ring which keeps the chain from twisting.

The pendulum is a metal rod
from my stash, filigreeand a brass moon.
I inserted the rod through the hole and glued it in place. For extra support, I slid a rondelle onto the
rod and glued it in place.

If you choose to hinge the clock face to the clock cabinet, you will want
to hide the area with the jump rings and rod.
An option to cover that area would be to use the drawer of a matchbox
turned upside down. The compartment is
deep so there is plenty of room for the matchbox drawer.
In the case of my moon clock, the clock face is glued in place so there was
no need to hide the jump ring and rod or to worry about the ugly looking glue.

CLOCK FRONT - CLOCK FACE

I started by papering the front side of
the clock front with tan and brown checkered paper from my stash (the back side is painted black).

With this kit, you have the option of
having the clock face fixed in place or you can hinge it to the clock front, which then gives you access
to the clock face compartment .If you
were going with a Steampunk theme it would be cool for this section to open and
to see the inner working’s of the clock.

Just as with the clock face area you
have an option as to how you want to view the middle of the clock case.You could just glue the frame in place and
leave it open to view the weights, pendulum and chimes or you could add a
hinged panel that opens to view the area.

For my moon clock, I decided to add a
hinged door using an image from the Large Grandfather Clock Façade collagesheet.I cut a thin piece of chipboard
and glued the image on one side.To the
other side of the chipboard I glued small hinges. Next, I glued a second version of the image on the other side of the chipboard thereby covering the hinges.

The kit includes a frame for the
midsection of the clock front. I painted
this frame blue and then glued a piece of clear plastic behind the frame to serve as
faux glass. Next, I glued the frame in
place. The frame fits flush with the
opening. I trimmed the frame area with gold tiny dot Dresden borders.

Finally, I glued the hinges to the front of the clock over the opening in the frame.I used a raw brass box foot and a bead as the door handle.

Next, I glued the front of the clock to
the clock case. If you choose to use a
panel for the bottom section you should glue it in place before gluing the
front of the clock to the clock case.

CLOCK FRONT – BOTTOM SECTION

For the bottom of the clock you can
either use the panel or drawer from the clock kit.

Below you can see a picture of how the
drawer pieces fit together. I painted
the drawer red, then papered the front of the drawer with Double Dot Vintage Wild Berry scrapbook paper. I didn't paper the sides or bottom of the drawer as I didn't want to create too much bulk that would get in the way sliding the drawer in and out.

I papered the sides and back with Halloween in Wonderland – Wonderland Classifiedsscrapbook paper. By waiting to paper the sides and
back until after attaching the clock front to the clock case, it allowed me to
cover up the tongue and groove areas where the two pieces fit together.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Welcome to the mystical world of Madam Rue. She has the
gift of sight which can reveal your future and explain your past. Only
she can lift the veil of mystery and connect to the regions beyond.

If
revelation is not what you seek, but instead a charm or potion, you have come to
the right place. Is it love, fame,
fortune or perhaps release from a curse?

Or maybe it was the sound of her
tambourine and her melodious voice that drew you here.

Be not afraid, step inside, your destiny awaits.

Here comes another Halloween project,
although I’m thinking gypsies are never out of season.

For those who have built or are building the
Halloween Carnival, this is a piece you might want to add to your display.

My choice of a jeweled toned color palette comes from looking at pictures of gypsy caravans where I noticed bright colors, fabrics, beading, fringe and bling.

What did I love the most about this
project?I think the mini globe lighting is right
at the top.I wish I could go back to
some of my older pieces and use the lighting.It would also look cool with the Mad Scientist Lab from earlier in the
summer.

I also love the furniture which
is made from either a kit or from unfinished wood items. My particular favorite is the 3 Panel Hutch sitting on top of a Library Table.

The furniture pieces could easily work standalone or as part of another one of your projects.

Don’t sweat the details as there is a video tutorial where I’ll walk you through creating Madam Rue’s
tent.

Pretty much all of the great products I
used for this project are being carried by Alpha Stamps. At the bottom of the post you’ll find the supply list and product links.

This sheet is a collection of mystical
items. There are books on palm ready,
fortune telling, crystal ball reading and more.
There are various business signs, tarot cards and other odds and end
that a seer into the beyond might need.

This set is a collection of mystical
items that a seer into the beyond might need.
In addition, the set contains images that you can use to create and outfit
a gypsy tent. All of the images in the
Gypsy Fortune Teller Collage Sheet are included plus a tent top panel, tent
side panel, images to decorate a table, curtains, and rugs for a total of 38
images.

All of the images in set can
be re-sized for your project as they are high resolution (300dpi) PNG formatted
images.